The next 3 were freestyle positions, one coming in from the left side of the basket, one coming in from the right side of the basket and finally from either corner down the baseline to the basket.

They were judged on artistic ability, imagination, body flow as well as fan response. George Gervin and David Thompson both missed a dunk during their routines which counted as a zero scores were not announced to the audience.

David Thompson did a degree dunk to finish his routine. All competitors had to perform a dunk from 10 feet, but Julius Erving started marking his steps from the free throw line 15 feet away.

He then completed a dunk from the free throw line. This was a season long event [1] similar to — NBA Horse event.

There were 22 competitors throughout the event nearly one for each team at the time , including future Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar , David Thompson , Alex English , Moses Malone , George Gervin , and Elvin Hayes and took place in multiple venues throughout the season.

Dominique Wilkins won the contest the following year, but in his Atlanta Hawks teammate Spud Webb made history when he defeated Wilkins in the final, preventing him from retaining his title.

His victory over Wilkins in in Chicago finished with a perfect 50 dunk from the free-throw line for his third dunk to win the contest.

However, the announcers did note that Wilkins was given abnormally low score for his breathtaking third dunk, a 45, allowing Jordan to win it by 2 with his perfect Kenny Smith scored high points for originality with his signature dunk — he started by turning his back to the basket, bouncing the ball backward between his legs and off the backboard, then turning and grabbing it in the air and reverse dunking it.

After , interest in the Slam Dunk Contest began to wane and lasted throughout the s. Initially, it was because many players lost interest in competing; some cited concerns of injuries, while others felt that the full repertoire of humanly possible dunks had already been exhausted.

Harold Miner was a standout in , winning the contest with a reverse power dunk, reaching between his legs and down to his feet in mid-air before sending the ball down.

In and respectively, Isaiah Rider and Kobe Bryant won the contest. Carter won after performing a number of very impressive dunks, including two reverse windmills, a honey dip, and a between-the-legs dunk off a bounced alley-oop from McGrady.

The next four contests did not feature superstars like Carter and Bryant, and despite innovative efforts by the likes of Desmond Mason and Jason Richardson , the lack of A-list superstars willing to participate hurt the appeal of the contest.

In , the Slam Dunk Contest returned to its birthplace in Denver. With the spectacular dunks of prior contests, there was buzz [ citation needed ] that the dunk competition could regain the popularity it had in the s.

Smith putting it around his back and dunking, and the new champion, Josh Smith alley-ooping over Kenyon Martin all wowed the crowd with their maneuvers.

With the change in the rules requiring an additional teammate starting in the second round, they proved there were indeed many ways to dunk a basketball that had not been done before.

Many fans argue that Iguodala should have won the contest, as it took Robinson fourteen attempts before finally completing his dunk.

Iguodala pulled off a dunk where he started out of bounds from the right side of the baseline while teammate Allen Iverson bounced the ball off the back of the right side of the backboard.

Iguodala caught the ball in mid-air behind the backboard, spun around to the other side while ducking his head to avoid colliding with the backboard and dunked it with his right hand.

On February 17, , the contest was held in Las Vegas. Judges for the event were all past winners: He also scored a perfect fifty with his last slam, a windmill over a table.

On February 16, , the contest was held in New Orleans. The title was taken by Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard. Nate Robinson won the contest on February 14 in Phoenix, Arizona.

He defeated Howard in the finals by a fan vote of 52—48 percent. Nate Robinson won the contest on February 13 in Dallas , becoming the first 3-time Slam Dunk champion.

Blake Griffin won the slam dunk contest by jumping and dunking over the hood of a Kia sedan on February 19 in Los Angeles. While George awed the crowd with a dunk with the lights turned off, Evans had perhaps the dunk of the contest by jumping teammate Gordon Hayward , catching two balls from Hayward, and dunking it.

Terrence Ross won the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest after a tomahawk dunk in tribute to former Toronto Raptors player Vince Carter , as well as a between-the-legs dunk performed while jumping over a ball boy.

Evans advanced to the final round to defend his title of slam dunk champion, but was thwarted by Ross. Ross carried the momentum of his near-perfect first round, in which he scored a 99 out of a possible , with a stellar final round.

Under the new team format, they dominated the Freestyle Round, capping it off with a pass off the backboard from Ross to Wall, then off the shot clock from Wall to George for the finish.

To the delight of NBA fans, the contest was changed back to its original format, as the Freestyle Round as well as the teams were taken out. The 4 dunkers competing were all up-and-coming players: LaVine took home the hardware with dunks that included a between-the-legs reverse, a behind-the-back slam in which he caught it in midair, a between-the-legs lefthanded dunk, and finished with a between-the-legs dunk as he caught it off the pole behind the backboard.

Many people, including winner Nate Robinson , thought that the contest was rigged to allow up-and-coming star Blake Griffin to win and that runner-up JaVale McGee deserved to win.

There have been 25 players crowned the best dunkers in the NBA. Nate Robinson is the only player to win the event three times.

Five are two-time winners: Shawn Kemp Seattle was scheduled to compete but was injured. The final round score was the best of two dunks. In the final round, each competitor was allowed 60 seconds to do at least two dunks and then given an overall score.

The first round was a Freestyle Round, with the winning team choosing the order of dunkers for the Battle Round. The Battle Round was then composed of one-on-one "battles", with the first team to three victories being the champion.